Saturday, December 18, 2010

It’s getting to be that time of year when I start to look back at what I’ve done over the past year and start to think about plans for the next year. I know I am far more productive when I have a plan – and especially when there is some specific goal worked into that plan.

At the beginning of this past year we were playing a campaign set in Rokugan (The Asian fantasy land that is the setting of the Legends of the Five Rings series of card and role-playing games). That fizzled. I would like to run that campaign again sometime – at the end of 2009 I bought a whole shwack of the RPG setting books and adventure modules and even some of the novels – dirt cheap. On one hand it’s great because there’s all that rich background already fleshed out for you… on the other hand it’s daunting because there’s all that rich background already fleshed out for you… One day I’ll get back to reading through it all and pick it up again. Probably not this coming year.

Then we ran a short far future sci-fi campaign. It fizzled too. I do have a lot of old Traveller stuff that I’d like to make use of some day… again, a lot of work… I’ll get to it some day…

Around April I started TWO simultaneous campaigns! On Wednesday nights I was running a World War Two (occasionally “Weird” War Two) East Front campaign and on Saturdays I started a Realms of Cthulhu campaign. They both started to fizzle in August as I got a bit burned out. I tried to get them BOTH going again in September but after another month burned out again and took another break. Since November I’ve got the WW2 campaign going again and everyone seems to be having fun..

I’m sick right now (bleh!) and so there’s no game tonight, and won’t be one next week as that’s Christmas.

So… Next Year…

I’ll definitely be pressing on with the (Weird) World War Two campaign. Ultimately I’d like to see it through to the end of the war… or until all the characters are killed in some climactic battle against some ultimate German evil nasty….

The Realms of Cthulhu campaign has really just been on the back burner and I’d really like to get playing that again. I’m sure how I’ll be abl to do that…? Alternate between the two…? Or put the WW2 campaign “on the back burner” for a bit…?

One part of the reason for wanting to get back on the Cthulhu campaign is that Dave has cleverly linked his two characters – his character in the Cthulhu campaign is the father of his character in the WW2 campaign!? I’d kind of like to tie those together game-wise, but obviously I can’t drop the elder into the WW2 campaign from time to time if I don’t know how his life plays out through the 20s and 30s – his life could very well end on some uncharted island in the pacific in 1926 or in the Antarctic in 1934 (unless, of course,we assume they are alternate parallel universes). What do I do – put the WW2 campaign on hold until his fate has been determined – either by his demise or that campaign catching up to the WW2 campaigns timeline!?

Whatever I do I’m pretty sure this year will be mostly weird war and cthulhu…

Possible Distractions…

Space:1889

The release of the Savaged version of Space:1889 poses a very real possible distraction. I loved that setting. I have almost all of the original GDW printed modules and source books. I also have a lot of Victorian era miniatures; largely Victorian Horror minis from playing Rippers, but I also have a few “colonials” and even some old Space:1889 Martians. Oh, I also have a lot of “old West” figures, which would be entirely appropriate.

Of course I’ve often thought of running a Space Rippers:1889 campaign too… Werewolves on Mars, Vampires on Venus…

North West Europe 44-45

I’ve finished my Canadians and will be working on some more Germans in the new year. The ultimate goal will be to run a campaign following a platoon of the Regina Rifle Regiment through the campaign in Northwest Europe, startingwith their assault on Courseulles on D-Day. I have a lot yet to do on this… but as I get closer to finishing up the Germans and new terrain…

Other campaigns I’d like to run… someday… that I have some miniature and/or campaign material for... that I occasionally get out and look over and consider… include Twilight:2000, Zombie Run, Traveller/Far future/Sci-fi, Rokugan/L5R, Tour of Darkness, Supers, Pirates, etc…

Hmmmm… Actually I think having typed this out has helped me focus a lot and I’m not feeling so distracted by other things at the moment…

Probably won’t be posting anything else on here for the next two weeks (unless any of my players get a character background to me that I decide to post!) so I hope you all have a happy holiday season and a joyful new year!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Shortly after escaping the German encirclement near Kharkov, orders arrived from Moscow ordering our heroes to another part of the front some 200 hundred miles to the north. A truck was commandeered and the distance was covered in only five days!

The region they arrived in was a relatively static part of the front. The area of operation of immediate concern to them was a forested. The German lines were on the other side of the woods.

For the last few months every full moon a nightly patrol in the woods has disappeared only to be discovered some time later, all dead and horribly mutilated. Last full moon a commissar had to shoot four members of the platoon that was to send out a patrol before they would go, none returned…

As the next full moon approaches, morale is at an all time low. Rumors of werewolves and the living dead run rampant. Executions for desertion at an all time high.

The BPO team has been brought in to determine if the source of the dreadful occurrences is arcane in nature.

Androv Virgilovski was promoted to Efreytor (Corporal), and is thus second in command of Trotsky’s Squad. Leytnant Stepanoff and Putyatin were called back to Moscow leaving Leytnant Marcov in charge. A new recruit has also joined the Squad - Rayadovoy Alexie Sackalov.

I had my werewolves all out and sitting on the edge of the table, but sort of out of the way… of course Patrick spotted them and they were immediately convinced they were for sure up against werewolves!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The BPO patrol heads out from the Russian lines into the woods… feeling a little nervous they stay pretty bunched up…

With such a target rich environment I couldn’t help but throw a couple grenades in there! SS team #1 ambushed Trotsky’s squad – taking out two of them.

When the grenades went off the pack handlers unleashed the wolves on the Tank crew. One of the tank crew was immediately down in their initial charge.

Since Trotsky’s squad was still all bunched up with the SS went again I chucked antoher could grenades. Taking out another pair and wounding Serzhant Trotsky!

Trotsky’s squad went for cover and laid down some withering fire! Two SS went down and the rest were shaken by the unexpected violent retaliation by the soviets!

Leytnant marcov shot one of the Wolves.

One of the Russians got a grenade close enough to take down another of the SS troops.

One of the SS recovered quickly enough and shot one of Trotsky’s men.

The tank crews, with the help of Virgilovsky took down the rest of the wolves. But the second SS team had, by that time, snuck up on them and gunned most of them down, point blank – including Leytenant Marcov!! (Two bullets – four wounds each, soaked two of the first shot…)

Darrin was dealt a joker and (because we’re still using fortune and calamity… because it’s fun…) the second SS team ran out of ammo…!?

I decided the following turn they would all just bug out, but let the players get one more turn of firing in – during which they tagged on of the second SS team.

Rayadovoy Alexie Sackalov rushed forward and captured two of the wounded SS (on lightly wounded, the other seriously) from the first team. The third one (also lightly wounded) managed to slip away in the dark.

The trooper from the second SS team was killed in action. His comrades were able to bare him away when they left, however.

Of Trotsky’s squad – five had been taken out of action, but four were lightly wounded (mis one game) and the fifth was only nicked and will return to action immediately! Serzhant Trotsky’s looking a little worse for wear however – he’ll be carrying those two wounds with him next game!

The most exciting bit about the game, however, is the fact that Serzhant Trotsky actually made it to veteran! I’ve run a number of campaigns over the last five years or so… In some, because starting characters were kind of weak for the campaign, I would give players 5XP per game until they made it to seasoned – and still we’ve never had anyone make it to Veteran. This campaign I’ve only been awarding the standard 1-3 experience… so it’s taken some time, but he’s there! (congrats Dave!)

Jackson’s decided to make a scout for his next character – which will probably work out better than a tank commander (not much call for tanks when investigating the arcane…)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

The group retired to Moscow for a few weeks while Putyatin recovered from her injuries. The time was mostly spent poring over reports of strange incidents from the front. By mid May they were on the move again to Izium to investigate a series of paranormal occurances. Just before they arrived the Soviets had launched their offensive towards Kharkov. A couple days later after their investigations turned up nothing they caught off guard by the first Panzer Army’s counterattack at the Barvenkovo bridgehead and found themselves behind enemy lines. After a few days of skulking around they found themselves aclose to the front and tried to make a break for it.

SCENARIO

Players start at one end of the table and must exit off the other. German forces are hidden in the buildings.

Anya and Virgilovski take fire from the German MG team that spotted them moving in the open down the main street directly to their rear. Putyatin was hit… in her medical bag (soaked), which exploded in a white cloud of shredded gauze.

Lt. Stepanoff and Rayadovoy Dizaleski approach a dilapidated building with caution.

All hell breaks loose and everyone is firing at everyone.

Rayadovoy Virgilovsky takes up a good firing position while Putyatin runs for cover.

The Scouts occupy a building. Lt Marcov takes some pot shots from a window with his pistol.

The German rifle team redploys for an all-round defence.

POW! Vigilovsky takes out one of the MG team.

POW! Then he shoots one of the LMG team.

One of the German Rifle team suddenly screams and drops to the ground bleeding from his nose and ears…

POW! Virgilovsky takes down another German.

More Germans dying… I can’t remember who shot this guy – probably Dizaleski.

The last of the LMG team goes down in a hail of fire from Trostsky’s squad.

German reinforcements arrived, but they are too late – though they tagged a couple of extras pretty much everyone got away unscathed.

The dramatic end of the German rifle team – Lt. Marcov charged in to attack the team leader with his trusty wooden stake (having run out of bullets). His feeble attacks are easily parried by the German. Just as thing look like they might go badly for the elderly Leytnant his co-commander, Lt. Stepanoff, burst through the doorway behind the German and filled him full of lead – point blank, in the back. Lt, Marcov, miraculously, escaped unscathed!

In total, the Germans suffered two killed in action, three seriously injured and six lightly wounded. The Russians, only nicks and scratches.

Coming Soon to Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

A detailed background of Lt Marcov is in the works. After some discussion of it at the game table there was no end to the "elderly" jokes flying tonight (Jackson's character, at 56, is at least 20 years older than any of the characters - which is kind of extra funny because Jackson is about 20 years younger than the average age of the other players...). Lt. Marcov will likely forever be referred to as "grandpa". Poor old codger, I'll need to find a scenario he can use his tanks in...

Anya comes from a long maternal line of healers. Many of her ancestors have been burned as witches, but "the craft" has carried on, generation after generation, mother to daughter. They have lived for centuries in small nameless villages on the western flanks of the Urals.

She is the youngest daughter of Ivan Michailovich Putyatin (a blacksmith) and Nadia Borysovna. Anya was born 23 September 1915 and is 26 years old at the beginning of 1942. She has three older siblings. Her sister, Oksana, was born 23 February 1913. Her brother, Nikolai, was born 11 January 1914, and her other brother, “Sasha”, was born 28 November 1914.

Ivan was conscripted in early 1915 during the Great War and rushed to the front. He served briefly with the 2nd Army and died near Warsaw in late July of that year. Before Anya was even born.

After Ivan left for the war, Nadia and her children returned to live on her parents’ farm. Anya’s Grandfather, Borys, was killed by Tsarists in October of 1920 when he refused to give up a portion of their pitiful harvest. Her Mother was executed by the Bolsheviks the following July “for giving aid and comfort to counterrevolutionaries”.

Anya and her siblings were then raised by their grandmother. Anya and Oksana learned “the carft” from Baba Yelena.

“Sasha” disappeared when they were still young (c. 1928). Nikolai is in a “corrective labour camp” in Siberia.

Anya joined the Red Army as a nurse in 1937. She served at a military hospital in Moscow for some years. In late 1941 as the fascist forces of Nazi Germany drew ever closer to Moscow Anya was transferred to the front as a medical aide.

She was seriously wounded in combat against supernatural foes. She spent some time as a patient in the very same hospital in which she had served for all those years. She was interrogated a few times by the NKVD about the “mutiny incident” in which she was wounded, then further interviewed by some other officials.

She was then recruited by the BPO as a Psyonik and trained to use the same abilities she had used for so long to heal in need – to kill the fascist enemies of the state.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Here, now, is the background for Patrick's character in our East Front Campaign. Patrick didn't have great luck with his first batch of characters... Satan was seriously wounded in his first game. With a shattered arm and four wounds, I think he was left behind for the Germans to take care of while the others carried on with their retreat. His next character, Viktor Krauss, I think, dies in a Soviet barrage - he had stayed behind to cover his retreating comrades. His next character, Alek Travek, was shot dead while trying to repair a truck. Valarie Mirisnofski was a rather large target (obese) and filled full of lead one dark night in Poland (saved him from being eaten by werewolves). Pyotr Dizalotski was a tank commander, and may have actually survived a couple games, but eventually lived up to his name by getting his guts blown all over Comrade Marcov while gloating that he could run faster... through the mine field...

Finally Patrick came up with "Dizaleski"... hoping he would die a little less...

Ioesph’s birthday is October 9th 1918 and he is 24 in April 1942. He was born and raised in Yeleninskoyez. He lived with his father and mother, Daniil and Elizeveta, his brother Igor, and sister Katya.

Daniil was a tavern owner before the war; he is 51 and was born August 12th 1891. Daniil was always proud of Igor and Ioseph and bragged about him to his customers.

Elizeveta helped Daniil at the family tavern, the White Flask Lodge, and now runs it. She was born on January 4th 1895 and is 47 in April 1942. She constantly worries about Ioseph and Igor. She loves all her children equally.Katya is 14 and was born July 15th 1928. She helps at the White Flask. Katya loves Ioseph even though he never lets her get her way.

Igor is Ioseph’s older and only brother. He was born April 2nd 1915 and is now 27. Ioseph and Igor were very close even though they often had arguments. Together they got into and out of a lot of trouble.

The civil war didn’t affect the Dizaleskis as they were supporters of the Bolsheviks. Ioseph believes that Stalin is doing the right thing in fighting the Germans. He also thinks that Stalin is a great leader and will do well for the country. The Communist Party is fine by Ioseph but he isn’t for or against it. Since church has been illegal as long as Ioseph has been alive he believes that religion, and any who follow one, are bad.

Ioseph’s only friend of note, Vasily Zaytsev, was born March 23rd 1915. Vasily was the only one in Yeleninskoyez who could match, if not beat, Ioseph’s skill in marksmanship. Ioseph followed Igor and Vasily everywhere they went. This annoyed Igor. If told to go away Ioseph would put up quite a fight but Igor would always win eventually. What Igor didn’t know was that Ioseph would continue to follow them but in a more discreet manner. Vasily noticed him many times but, finding it funny, didn’t say anything.

On a hunting trip when they were younger Ioseph, Igor and Vasily came across a group of wolves. There were three of them, one for each of the hunters. They all chose one and on Vasily’s signal, fired. Vasily and Ioseph both hit and killed their targets, but Igor missed. Surprisingly the wolf didn’t run away, but angered, it charged the boys. They all scrambled to get up a tree. Igor and Vasily were both got safely in a tree but Ioseph, in his haste, slipped off of a branch and fell to the ground. The crazed wolf leapt towards Ioseph and was nearly on him when Vasily shot it. Ioseph has been wary of wolves ever since.

Igor, Daniil and Vasily were recruited in 1937. Ioseph was recruited as a sniper in 1941. While in training Ioseph was the top marksman and he didn’t let the others forget it. Another reason that Ioseph’s comrades disliked him was because if he didn’t like the way they did something he would do it his own way.

Ioseph’s first assignment was to help guard a unit that was to recover important documents from a demolished train yard. By this time Vasily was already a Master Sergeant, and Igor a Junior Sergeant. Vasily also teaches at his sniper school in Stalingrad.

Ioseph’s wants to earn the respect he feels he deserves. If he survives he plans to return to Yeleninskoyez and become a hunter and trapper. He would like to get married and have children.

Elizeveta, Katya, and Vasily are alive. Daniil and Igor are not known to be alive or dead.

Serzhant Boris Ivanovich Trotsky is Dave's Character in our East Front Campaign. He's done a bit of research into this, which is very cool. Another clever thing he's done is made Boris the son of his character from our Realms of Cthulhu Campaign!?

Boris is another survivor. He's been around for more games than Virgilovsky (Though Virgilovsky has been around since the very first game, Rick missed a few games...).

Early Family HistoryThe Trotsky family had lived in the Odessa area for generations. Boris’s grandfather Jozef Trotsky was born in 1869 to peasant farmers and was the only one of 11 siblings that didn’t stay on the farm. At the age of twenty-four, his determination to succeed in the city led him to a job as a guard at the Odessa prison. He enjoyed being a guard, he enjoyed the power, and he enjoyed taking bribes. Often, the information he got from the prisoners was worth more than the money or food. All of it helped to pad his moderate income, and fit in well with his motto of “Family first.”

With his wife Paraskevia, Jozef had six children that survived early childhood. Third oldest was Ivan, born August 20, 1890, the first boy-child and Jozef’s pride. As Ivan grew, Jozef would take him to the prison to see the prisoners, and to show how big a man his father was. Ivan would sit with his father and hear the secrets the prisoners would whisper in exchange for a little extra food, or a little easier work detail. Ivan would often be enlisted to help turn those secrets into money and food for the family, learning how to survive and thrive in the underworld of crime and political intrigue.

Jozef’s most notorious prisoner was Lev Davidovich Bronstein who was a political prisoner at the jail in 1898. Eight-year-old Ivan loved to hear Bronstein talk; he stirred the spirit of the other men in the prison, at least until he was sentenced to Siberia in 1900. When Bronstein escaped from Siberia in 1902, he evidently took Jozef’s last name for his own, becoming Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Russian Revolution and second only to Lenin in the Bolshevik army.

Boris’s ChildhoodIvan grew up and married Katerina in the spring of 1912, and after numerous miscarriages, Katerina gave birth to Boris Ivanovich Trotsky on July 15, 1918 during the height of the Russian Civil War. Complications during childbirth prevented Katerina from having further children, so Boris ended up as an only child. Boris’s father Ivan was a “businessman” (international smuggler/black marketeer), and travelled extensively, specializing in antiquities. Starting when Boris was three years old, Ivan was mostly abroad, often in England, returning only occasionally to Katerina and little Boris. His connections to the underworld through Boris’s prison-guard grandfather, and the convenient Black Sea port location, gave him easy access to international markets. Ivan became known as someone who could “get what you needed.”

Boris was raised by his mother, often not recognizing his father when he returned for brief stays. His mother Katerina seemed to be actively involved with the business, and discretely received many visitors, some with coloured skin and exotic accents, when Ivan was away. His parents provided “services and supplies” to both sides in the Civil War but never actively fought. Boris never knew exactly what his parents did, but he was often sent about the city on deliveries and other simple missions, where a child would not be suspected.

As Stalin came to power, the Trotsky name was not an asset, but the family business and their ability to keep their heads down generally saw them through without incident. As the food shortages increased, their connections helped the family survive, though they were careful never to appear too well fed. Boris became sneaky, and his developing stealth helped him avoid undue attention. “You Must Survive, Surviving is Everything” his parents repeated, and little Boris adopted that philosophy with a passion. The Trotsky’s were not above reporting potential troublemakers to the NKVD - anything to help avoid trouble, and survive a little longer. As a result of their systematic self-protection and the many shady dealings of the family business, young Boris acquired numerous Enemies, most of whom were unknown to him.

On August 7, 1932 Stalin passed a law that all food was state property - mere possession of food was evidence of a crime. Fourteen year old Boris was among the most enthusiastic enforcers of the law, and fanned out into the countryside with his youth brigade in order to prevent the "theft" of state property. He built his strength helping to construct watchtowers (over 700 were built in the Odessa region alone) to ensure that no peasants took food home from the fields. The youth brigades lived off the land, eating what they confiscated from the peasants, developing their fighting and throwing skills, often pelting the peasants with rocks. His youthful enthusiasm was dampened on the day his brigade were sent to confiscate the grain and cattle from an uncle’s farm. His comrades humiliated his aunt and uncle, burned their house, and forced the starving cousins to crawl and bark like dogs. But he had learned his parents’ lessons well, joined in the persecution, and kept his views to himself.In the peak of the famine, most of Boris’s extended family perished in the countryside or were deported and never heard from again – it was not a good time to be a peasant farmer in the Ukraine. Boris’s aging grandparents also died of disease during the famines of 1932-33. Despite the unfortunate Trotsky name and the terrible famine, Boris’s immediate family survived intact, and survival became the driving force for Boris, more important than honour, politics, friends, or even family. Though a Communist Party member, and publicly supportive of Stalin, Trotsky’s only loyalty was to himself, and to survival. He had no use for religion.

Military ServiceBoris joined the Soviet Army on his 21st birthday in the summer of 1939 and was soon posted to the Winter War in Finland. Much of the war was spent freezing, starving, with terrible sanitary conditions, and with the guerilla tactics of the Finns decimating the Russian infantry. Still, Boris had tough skin and survived the war, proving himself as a fighter and survivor.On August 20, 1940, Boris Ivanovich Trotsky was promoted to Serzhant, coincidentally the same day the enemy-of-the-people Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico on Stalin’s orders, and fifty years to the day since Boris’s father Ivan Trotsky was born. Serzhant Trotsky was sent to Eastern Poland and was stationed in Bialystok as part of the Russian occupation army. In the last letter he received before the German invasion of Poland in June 1941, his mother was in good health in Odessa, and expressed pride in his promotion. As usual, his father was abroad. At the time of the German invasion, Trotsky was 22 years old.

After the invasion, Boris was able to elude the encircling Germans and fought with partisan forces as he attempted to rejoin the Russian armies in the East. Though his “disgraceful retreat” resulted in serious questioning by the NKVD, his survival and successes on a few subsequent suicide missions took the political heat off him, for a time. Still, his treatment at the hands of the NKVD left a fear of the NKVD bordering on phobia, affecting his performance when under close NKVD scrutiny. In most situations though, his experience with surviving famine, criminal interactions, political upheaval, and the unwanted attention from the Trotsky name, combined with his fierce determination to survive, can make him quite an Intimidating character. Boris works best when commanding a troop of conscripts, whom he considers useful but disposable in battle. Boris does not hesitate to use his troops for his own protection – after all “Surviving is Everything!” He’s given up on planning for the future, and his vision is limited to surviving the war at all costs.

THE GAMETo start with the team had to figure out how they were going to go about this. The three actual BPO agents (Markov, Stepanoff, and Putyatin) put their heads together and tried to remember everything they could about vampires… which wasn’t very much. After they cut some wood and sharpened themselves up some stakes, they requisitioned a scout squad to help track down the German soldiers that had accompanied the Vampire (hard to track a cloud of mist).

The scouts turned out to be some pretty resourceful fellows and led them straight through the enemy lines to the long abandoned, over-grown ruins of a medieval castle. After watching it for some time they discovered that there was indeed a squad of SS guards inhabiting the ruins…

Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The whole group snuck right up to the ruined castle – the Nazis completely unaware of their presence… The Scouts snuck right up to the room where one group of SS troopers were hanging out…

BAM! a grenade tossed in among them took out one and injured another – the third within the blast radius escaped unscathed!

They then riddled the room with Submachinegun fire and took down two more.

Psyonik Anya Putyatin caused the others brian to melt.

The MG team at the other end of the castle, alerted to the Soviets presence, set up their MG and returned fire.

Another trooper quickly snuck around the corner to try and get a flanking shot – he was quickly taken care of by Virgilovsky.

The MG team took out one of the Russian scouts, but then had to pull back when their team leader was cut down by the whithering fire from all around.

Rick (Virgilovsky), left, and Jackson (Lt. Marcov), right.

Christian (Lt. Stepanoff), left, and Amanda (Putyatin), right.

Putyatin and Marcov got a little ahead of themselves (and the others) thinking the MG team had been subdued, unfortunately there was still a bit of fight in them. They turned and fired on the two wounding Anya, and causing MArcov to duck for cover (soaked)

The Scouts caught up and finished off the SS troopers….

There was no sign of the Vampire. Interrogating the German prisoners proved useless as no one spoke any German.

They figured he must be secured within the mausoleum in the center of the castle, but could not find a way in. The heavy door was bolted from within…

They tried to set fire to the door. It was difficult to get it burning and took some time. Just after sunset the door swung open of it’s own accord and a cloud of mist seemed to escape amidst the smoke of the fire!

The BPO team ransacked the mausoleum. They found a great wooden crate filled with earth. They quickly spread the earth around the ruins – dumping much of it in the pit toilet. Then scarpered with their prisoner. They successfully made it through the German lines again getting back just before dawn! Around 10AM Lt. Stepanoff had the divisional artillery saturate the approximate coordinates of the castle with High Explosive.

They conceded that they probably didn’t eliminate the vampire… but they hoped they caused it some discomfort and made it angry…

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Rayadovoy Androv Markovich Virgilovskiis Rick's Character in our East Front Campaign. Virgilovski is a survivor - he is the only charcter still around from the first game. Well... there's Serzhant Zaitzoff... but he's only showed up for a couple games - and Androv has certainly been present for far more than he's missed! Below is the background Rick wrote for his character.

Androv Virgilovski comes from a line of frontiersmen that can't be traced back very far, but is known to originate from North America. Although incompletely recorded in the history books, Virgilovski's great grandfather was the famous Western lawman Virgil Earp (brother of Wyatt); born in Kentucky in July 8, 1843, died October 19, 1905. While just 16, Virgil eloped in Iowa with the first of his several wives, who was Dutch immigrant Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam; born November 25, 1842 in Utrecht, Netherlands, died May 3, 1910 in Cornelius, Oregon. Virgil left for the Civil War when his only child with Ellen (Nellie Jane Earp - January 7, 1862-June 17, 1930) was just two weeks old. In 1863, Ellen was incorrectly told that Virgil was killed in the war, and left to find her fortune in the Oregon Territory. Upon returning at the end of the war, Virgil found that Ellen had left, and decided to head west to join his brothers. Ellen had remarried twice by the time that Virgil (since remarried himself) found her in Oregon 37 years after he had last seen Ellen and his daughter Nellie.

Androv's father Virgil Jr. (son of Androv's grandmother Nellie) was born in the Oregon Territory in 1892, and, upon reaching the age of 17, and finding no further wilderness to the west, signed onto a merchant ship in Portland, Oregon and spent several years earning his living at sea. After having an altercation with the 1st mate while steaming off the coast of Russia in 1912, Virgil Jr. was forcibly put to shore in a small eastern Russian port. Having picked up Russian from shipmates, Virgil worked his way west as a labourer on the Trans-Siberian Railway, moving from small town to town and (reportedly) managing to avoid the Great War. It was during this period that he changed his name to Markov Virgilovski and took a wife Ilya, who bore his only child Androv on October 19, 1919 (14 years to the day following his famous great grandfather's death), while his father Markov was off on a fall hunting trip.

Androv grew up to be a brawny farm labourer and hunter, and the latter trained him to be a fairly good shot. Living a frontier lifestyle was rough at times, and Androv had a number of close calls while off on hunting trips. He bore a large scar on his left cheek, which he claimed was from fighting off a bear that he had wounded. It was something that he didn't like to talk about. Based on the timing relative to a number of mysterious livestock deaths at the time, superstitious local villagers were convinced that the scar was from an attack by a werewolf, which had long been rumoured to be lurking in this part of Siberia. Whatever the cause, Androv had obviously seen some disturbing sights in his travels, and possibly because of this, was known to have a steely composition not easily shaken by strange sights or injury.

Due to the uneasy relationship he had with the locals, Androv did not protest loudly when he was drafted and sent to the Western Front to guard the border with German occupied territory. When the Germans attacked during Operation Barbarossa, Androv's squad was rapidly cut off from the main Soviet forces and he and a few comrades gradually fought their way to the outskirts of Moscow, where he was recruited into the BPO. Given his history, Androv was none too keen to be fighting in the vicinity of purported supernatural forces - but he did as he was told. Based on stories passed down to him by his father, he longed to "return" to North America's Wild West. He even told some of his comrades that he had heard rumours that other descendants of the Earp family were reportedly involved in secret advance sorties not too far from Moscow.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Leytnant Gennady Vasilievich Stepanoff is Christian's character in our East Front Campaign. What follows is a character background he wrote (other players take note - he gets 5 skill points and a couple free edges just for writing this!):

Leytnant Gennady Vasilievich Stepanoff was born on 26 Nov 1921, in Leningrad, where he lived until joining the Red Army in late 1940.

His parents are Vasily Ivanovich Stepanoff, 46, born 3 January 1896, and Ekaterina Semyonova Stepanoff, 42, born 15 August 1899. They are both factory workers in Leningrad. Gennady has one brother, Vladimir, 16, born 15 May 1926, and two sisters, Lidiya, 15, born 12 March 1927, and Ruslana, 19, born 8 November 1922. Ruslana is a Red Army nurse somewhere on the front, and the other two are still in school in Leningrad. With the German blockade in the city, Gennady has not heard from anyone in his family since the invasion, and worries about their fate, as the family was very close. Although he does not know it, his parents and youngest sister have been killed by German terror attacks in the city. Vladimir was drafted into a people's militia division in late August of 1941 and sent to the front, where he survived (barely) the battles at the approaches to Leningrad, and is currently trying to survive as a partisan behind the front of the German 18th Army. Ruslana is serving in the Soviet Southern Front in the Ukraine.

Gennady, along with his family, are avowed communists, and staunch members of the party - his parents came to age in the heady days of the Revolution in Leningrad, and considered themselves good proletariat bolshevik Soviets and followers of the Leningrad party apparatus. The civil war mainly passed the family by; Vasily took part in the initial Bolshevik uprising in and around St. Petersburg and was wounded, but as a skilled machinist did not fight in the remainder of the civil war. Luckily, noone in the extended family has come to the attention of the NKVD or become a victim of party infighting - they are politically clean. Their opinion of Stalin is publicly supportive (of course), but they are unsettled by the purges, which hit leaders of the Leningrad party hard in the early thirties. As good Marxists they are not supportive of the church, although Gennady, having gone through the BPO training, is starting to wonder whether the church would be useful against the supernatural weapons of the Germans.

Gennady's most important relative is his uncle, Maxim Ivanovich Stepanoff, 51, who is an up and coming apparatchik in the Leningrad party, and a protege of Andrei Zhdanov, the Leningrad Party leader. He has been tasked with helping organize supplies and rations in Leningrad, and is showing some success there. It is possible that his success here may lead to elevation in the party, perhaps even to the Central Committee. He had a son whom he was grooming for party life, but he was killed in the border battles on the Baltic Front. Gennady is his sole remaining younger male relative.

Gennady joined the Army in 1940, and was quickly noticed for his combination of intelligence and spirit, as well as for his allegiance to the party. Assigned to command a company in the 85th Rifle Division of the 3rd Army, he distinguished himself by resisting the German advance and then organizing and leading partisan movements while trying to return to Soviet lines following encirclement. His ability and exposure to German supernatural weapons led to his being selected for the BPO.

He has several Red Army connections. Polknovik Pyotr Ordkinodzhe is the BPO Operations Officer for the Western Front, he personally recruited Stepanoff and most of his agents. Major Josef Valentin is the coordinator of partisan operations for the Western Front. Kapitan Andrei Raspotoff is the current leader of the Western Front's 17th Partisan Brigade, operating behind German lines, and worked with Gennady on several occasions. Gennady is also somewhat of a protege of Sergey Kalinikov, currently the Political member of the 20th Army staff.

Gennady is motivated both by his support for the party, which is unwavering, and by his loathing of the Germans, who he considers tainted by their use of supernatural terror. He believes that the invasion by Germany has been orchestrated by supernatural powers, and that the fate of the Russian people is to be slaves, or food, or worse. He will therefore fight without mercy against supernatural foes and those that fight with them, although he will admit that there are Germans who are just fighting because they are told to, and who just want to get through the war; to these he will grant quarter if the opportunity arises. Gennady had planned to follow in his father's footsteps and work for the good of the people, but now he is focused on defeating the Germans and their supernatural overlords. He does realize, however, that the BPO offers a path to status within the army or party after the war is finished.

His recent string of successes, driving off a powerful vampire among them, has led Gennady to become Overconfident (major hindrance). However, realizing that his supernatural enemies are pretty tough, he has been leading his men in calisthenics, and has thus become more vigourous (Vigour to d8). He is looking forward to hunting down the vampire that has been plaguing this sector of the front line, and believes that they will be able to defeat it if they can find it's daytime lair. There are probably some Germans to wade through first, but with a good plan and the application of good communist principles, they will not be a problem...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Having been severely wounded at the beginning of Operation Typhoon, most of our heroes spent the first part of the winter recovering in hospital near Moscow. Afterwards they were individually summoned by the NKVD and subjected to a number of interrogations concerning some of the strange encounters they’ve had in the last couple of months (Werewolves, Blood Mages and Animated Dead). The Officers, Marcov and Steianoff, were officially recruited by the B.P.O., as was the medic who showed some telepathic ability. The others were assigned to them as personal guards and were told nothing of their mission.

In the spring they are sent on their first mission for the B.P.O…

On a relatively quiet sector of the central front, Northwest of Demyansk, a battalion has been reporting “disappearances”. Soldiers are simply disappearing in the middle of the night from their trenches. They aren’t desertions, as bodies are often found mutilated and drained of blood.

SCENARIO

The B.P.O. agents and their guards are attached to unit as “replacements”. They are to determine, and eradicate, cause of “disappearances”.

The group set uo some wire and trenches and organized some watches and then hung out for a few days… on the fourth night…

The Count and his guard sneak up to the Russian lines. The count drifts through the lines (almost) undetected… Ioseph Dizaleski notices a strange mist pass over his trench and watches as a frightful figure appears out of it and leaps into the trench with them!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Before anyone can do anything one Russian soldier is down – bitten in the neck, he slumps to the floor of the trench and gouts of blood spurt through the hand he desperately clamps to the wound to hold it in… The serzhant of the unit, also int eh trench with Dizaleski, shrieks like a frightened little girl, raising the alarm.

With the alarm raised the Counts Guard opens fire, from their concealed position, on the other trenches.

The few occupying the other trenches blindly return fire.

The rest of the platoon awakens and charges to the aid of their dying comrades

The Count’s Guard, though providing a small distraction, prove to be not-so-good shots. The two groups blaze away ineffectively in the darkness.

Rat-a-tat-tat. Serzhant Trotsky balzing away in the darkness.

The platoon’s Serzhant was also quickly dispatched, but Dizaleski put up a bit more of a fight… Virgilovski arrived and fired on the two locked in combat. He put a bullet square through the Count’s chest, who didn’t even seem to notice…

Upon the arrival of the rest of the platoon (and the B.P.O. psionik) the count decided this was turning out to be too much work for his little midnight snack and disappeared in a cloud of mist…. But not before the Russians fired a volley at him another solid hit on him – which he again didn’t even seem to notice and two bullet in Dizaleski!!

Anya quickly gave aid to Dizaleski and the two other wounded Soviets. They survived but were severely wounded and were evacuated in the morning. Both died of their wounds in under a fortnight.

Monday, September 27, 2010

I was trying to run two different Savage Worlds campaigns each week – one on (Weird World War) Wednesday and one on (Savage) Saturday. Well over the next couple months the bulk of the Saturday Savages are going to be around less than 50% of the time, Wednesday wasn’t really working for some of the World War Wednesday Savages, and, honestly, trying to run two games a week was getting to be a bit of a strain and both nights I was feeling a little… unprepared…

So starting this week I invited the (Weird World War) Wednesday Savages to come out on (Savage) Saturday and I will alternate between the two campaigns. Which I run any given week will depend partly on who’s going to be able to make it out but mostly on whatever suits my fancy that particular week!

So this week the Cthulhu campaigners were going to make WWW2 characters (except the two that didn’t have a character decided to leave and go to a movie instead) and the WWW2 made some Cthulhu characters and then I tried to kill them all!! MWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-ha…!!!

8 October 1941

SITUATION

Operation Typhoon rages on. German Armoured groups plunge towards Moscow and threaten to encircle another vast number of Soviet soldiers near Viazma. The armoured thrust must be stopped!

SCENARIO

The Soviets must hold their line and not let any Germans exit their edge of the table. There is a second line of NKVD who will shoot at ANYONE that comes their way, Soviet or German, so there is not retreat.

…penetrating the turret of the first Panzer 38t and killing the gunner!

The fight was brief but violent.

The Soviets lost one tank – the T-26 Lt. Marcov was commanding was destroyed. Luckily all the crew successfully bailed and survived. Though a number of Soviet Riflemen had been hit – the quick action of the medical aide got them back up and into action again. Only one was unable to continue at the end of the action. Normally he would have been evacuated, but they feared the NKVD might execute him so his wounds were stabilized and he was left to rest in the woods furthest from the Germans

The Germans lost one tank destroyed and two seriously damaged – all due to the Anti-tank Rifleman; Alexi Petrov! Two German Riflemen were killed in action and another was lightly wounded. With all that damage to the tanks they decided to fall back and regroup.

The Soviets consolidated their position. The Riflemen took a new position in the woods on the North end of their designated area of the front. Lt. Marcov took over the remaining tank and positioned it behind some woods on the south end of their operational area. Alexi Petrov skulked in the rear with his Anti-tank rifle.

They waited.

And waited….

AND waited!!

Finally…. in the middle of the night….. everyone failed notice rolls!

Before he even knew they were there, the attackers were on his tank and tearing at him! Lt. Marcov at first couldn’t understand why his own people were attacking… or how they could attack with such vigor when they clearly had such severe wounds… Then he realized something more sinister was at work here. The driver fired up the tank and tried to drive away – most of the attackers fell off.

More Russians appeared, shambling, out of the gloomy woods. There was something not right about them either… then it dawned upon the defenders THESE WERE THE REANIMATED CORPSES OF THEIR FALLEN COMRADES!!!

One mob was upon the Riflemen. Anya made a run for it – hoping to retrieve the rifle of the wounded riflemen in the next copse of woods. The tank took a tour around the battlefield – having some difficult locating anything in the dark!

The animated dead shambling their way across the field towards Alexi Petrov.

Marcov’s driver tried to make a tight turn to avoid the woods in the dark, but had trouble judging distances. He crashed through a few rees and very nearly drove over the medical Aide!

Marcov finally located some of the attackers and got an HE shell loaded. The gunner fired off a wild shot in the dark barely missing Alexi Petrov!

Serzhant Trotsky’s squad fought a brutal melee with the attackers. Though they sold themselves dearly the attackers numbers overwhelmed them. Eventually Serzhant Trotsky broke free and made a run for it!

The other group of attackers inexplicably veered away from Petrov’s position and charged down Dizaleski and the Medical Aide!

It soon became apparent why – Petrov was in league with the minions of evil and started shooting his Anittank Rifle at the BT-7!?

The BT-7 Roared away from the undead mob and tried to run down Petrov and the dark cloaked figure in the woods opposite – again the driver had difficulty navigating the terrain in the dark and crashing into trees was deflected offto the side!

At pointblank range Petrov fired a shot into the side of the tank destroying it!

Having no more use for his “puppet” the shadowy figure shot Petrov. One of the bailed tank crew, however, charged into the woods and attacked him! Around the same time Sgt. Trotsky arrived and clubbed him on the head a couple times with his Ppsh. When the shadowy figure fell the tank crewman put a bullet in his head for god measure and at that moment the remaining undead staggered and dropped to the ground!!

And it was none too soon. On the same turn Anya Putyatin and Ioseph Dizaleski had been incapacitated – another turn and they would have been lunch (killing blows/brains eaten...). Petrov and Marcov both suffered serious wounds (2 wounds each). Of the Rifle squad only one was outright killed the rest escaped with light wounds…

There had been 20 reanimated Russians attacking them. 13 had been K.O.ed before their controller was taken out.

Coming Soon to Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

Hopefully some fleshed out backgrounds for a few of the newish characters.

Next Savage Saturday night we will probably return to the Weird War Two action. It will likely be some time later as everyone but Sgt. Trotsky have severe wounds to recover from… The following week we could be back to our Realms of Cthulhu campaign…. But we shall see…